Christmas present photos

Sorry I've been rather absent lately. Things are moving a mile a minute in 2012 for me and I'm rushing to keep up with it all. I've been working on a few projects I haven't posted yet (those will be up soon) and I have some photos I wanted to share in the meantime.

There is a lovely young Marine who I met through my husband and as a Christmas present to her, I took some photos. She's one of those really pretty people who doesn't believe for a second that they're pretty. What is up with that? I decided I wanted her to see herself the way we did so I dragged her over to the house and took a bunch of shots. I'm still working on some of them but here's the ones I liked most from the set so far.

Yes, she actually plays the guitar, it's not just a prop. She's pretty darn good with both the bass guitar and the acoustic guitar so I wanted to incorporate those into the shoot somehow. 

I just like the light in this one. I know these aren't perfect or anything but I really liked taking them and I hope when I'm done with the whole set, she'll enjoy them all. 

Maybe I'll even convince her that she's pretty. One can always hope. 

Portraits and Musings

Man, it has been a heck of a week, let me tell you. It's only the 5th day into 2012 and I'm already floored by everything that's happened recently. I've got some pretty big news but I can't talk about some of it quite yet. Don't worry though, as soon as I can,  I'll share it with you all. In the mean time I have some other exciting news and a few photos to share. :) But since I love cliffhangers, I'm going to make you wait for the awesome news. ;)

First, more photography love! I had such a positive reaction to my photos last time I posted them that I thought I'd share some of the others I've done. I do love scenic work but my passion is for portraits. I love making people look as amazing as I can and I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you.

I do a lot of work at conventions where I wander around looking for people in interesting costumes. I admit it, I'm a bit of a geek. Heh. I love comic books and sci-fi movies so I attend some of the larger local conventions like DragonCon. This photo was actually taken at Anime Weekend Atlanta. This lovely young woman was walking around in a doll-like costume and I asked if I could grab her picture. Can you believe she didn't think she was pretty?! 

This is also from a convention but it has a lot of post work done to it. The guy in the elf costume was nice enough to let me snap a photo but he was out in the middle of a very brightly lit grass area in the middle of downtown Atlanta. Yeah, elves and skyscrapers just weren't doing it for me so I spent some time removing the horrid glare of steel and glass so I could replace it with something a little less...distracting. 

This was an actual commission work for my martial arts instructor. He needed new photos for advertisements, posters, business cards, ect so I got a bunch of shots of him and all of his staff. 

Yes, he meant to look that surly. ;) 

This was an on-the-fly model shoot done for an up and coming young model who needed something pronto for her portfolio. I often poke around ModelMayhem to find models for my shoots when I have something specific in mind. It's a website for models and photographers to meet up and work together. I have to be very careful because there's plenty of creeps out there but I've found being a female photographer tends to put a lot of people at ease. This young lady asked me to meet her at the last minute across town so, with nothing else do to, I whisked off and snapped a few very quick shots for her. I really like how this one came out. 

My absolute favorite subject? My friends. This sweet young woman is my tattoo artist. She did the lovely design down my spine and I adore her. She did most of the work on her own arms too. I took this as part of a project I'm working on called "Framed: Misconceptions of Body Art." I'm trying to show that just because someone modifies themselves, it doesn't make them a freak. Tattoos are very personal and each one has a story behind it. I plan to continue this project as I collect those stories and photos in one place. 

This is my friend Wendy. Hehehe. Isn't she AWESOME? She made this costume herself. It's Max's wolf suit from Where the Wild Things Are. She works at a bookstore and wears this on Halloween. The kids LOVE it. 

My lovely friend Rachel, who I am still trying to convince on how pretty she is. She and my friend Jessica (below) are the ones who got me into bellydancing and I can't thank them enough. I did this photoshoot just for the grins and because I wanted to show them both just how beautiful they are. :) 

This is Jessica. I know, right? She's GORGEOUS. She photographs ridiculously well and I love this series of images with her. This whole photoshoot produced some really great stuff and I love the intensity on her face here. 

Want to know a little trick for your photography?

You see that pretty backdrop in all it's glory? Yeah, that's a scarf. No, really. I put up a bar in the room (you can use two tall people and a broom handle for this) and just draped the scarf over it. She's actually wearing part of it too. That section draped over her head? Just the bottom of the scarf, pulled up and settled so you can't see where it's folded in the back. That's it. Instant neat backdrop for those impromptu photoshoots with bellydancers. :) 

Speaking of which, this segues nicely into my news. See how I did that? Slick, huh? 

Anyway, as some of you know, I've been taking bellydancing for a little while now and just a couple of days ago, the owner of the studio came up to me and asked me for my contact info. They want me try out for the official troop. 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

*insert more happy squealing* 

If I pass the audition, I get to join them on actual performances at various functions. I'm super excited because joining is invitation only and so it's a great honor to be picked. So yeah, I'm stoked. Also, I take my  Cisco test tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'm nervous but that would be one more resolution down. :) 

Hope all of your dreams are coming true this year too. Has anyone done something for you that made you feel particularly beautiful? 

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Photography Love

It dawned on me tonight while on another round of browsing other people's lovely blogs, that I have pretty much relegated most of my posts here to only artisan crafts and that leaves out a few arts that are very near and dear to me. One of those loves is photography. I know there are plenty of photographers out there that are better at this than me but I love it and I love to learn from them. For me, photography lets me grab a moment. It lets me show the rest of the world the wonder and joy I find in others and in the life around me. It's a love I shared with my father before he passed and now I carry his camera with me on my adventures. I am still learning it to be honest. It was like going from a volvo to a Ferrari since he was a professional at this. I sometimes feel like I'm still a little girl fumbling with daddy's equipment as I try to figure out what all the settings do but I also feel like I'm closer to him when I snap off a shot. It always makes me smile.

Almost two years ago I got a chance to take that camera to Ireland for three weeks with one of the most wonderful people in the world, my friend Taylor. I snapped thousands of photos that I'm still proud of. Just  recently, I got a coupon from Shutterfly for a free 8x8 color 20 photobook that I could design and I knew it was a chance to give Taylor something special. I organized some of our photos and added them to the book with a story-like narrative telling the tale of two heros on an adventure. She got the book about a week ago and told me it made her cry as one of the best gifts she's ever gotten. It's only fair I suppose...her friendship is one of my favorite gifts too. :)

With all that said, I decided that I should finally share some of my photos with you guys. Feedback and critique is always appreciated as I can't grow if I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's also nice to know when I'm doing things right so here are a few of my favorite shots. :)

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